is Monday, July 14th, and I call to order the study session of the Richfield School Board. With us in the boardroom today, we have B uh board clerk Rachel Baines Cupcho, board chair Eric Carter, director Tim Pace, superintendent and the study session and I and the board treasurer Ken Liss. Um today's the study session today is anformational in session for people who may be interested in running to be selected to the school board. The RPS school board officers the in thisformational session for in each election year. Traditionally it is led by a board member whose term is not up for election in that year which is why I'm leading the session today. We will begin with an informational presentation and then there will be time for anyone in the room to ask questions for any of the board members to answer. All right, there it is. The introduction. So, um let's just get on with it. Why? How many people here are interested in? How many people are possible candidates? Well, welcome. Um, why do you want to run? Are you passionate about public education? Are you interested in multiple issues facing our schools and students? Are you concerned about tackling problems to benefit the greater good? You value collective action? Do you enjoy governance and policy work? If not, why are you running? laugh about that the glamour because it's cool, right? Eligibility. You have to be eligible to run. You have to be at least 21 years old. You have to be an eligible voter. You have to be a district resident for at least 30 days prior to election. Not be convicted of a felony. There may be conflicts of interest if you are a district employee or hold contracts with the district. For example, I am a substitute teacher for the district, which means I am a district employee. So the rules are you can only earn a certain amount of money from the district by law. By Minnesota law, you can only earn so much money from the district if you're on the school board. So, I used to be a building sub at one of the elementary schools and now I more of a casual sub here and I do a lot of work out in St. Paul as well. So, all right. Okay. The threshold is is what? like it's 20,000 a year. 20,000 in a year. The nitty-gritty if we needed to. Filing for candidacy, you do have to file to get put on the on the ballot. Richville Public Schools has one filing period. Goes from July 29th through August 12th at 5:00 pm. Those who have those who file have until August 14th at 5:00 pm to officially withdraw and not appear on the November ballot. So you have two days. You have 48 hours to figure it out. Um, file an affidavit of candidates candidacy available on the Minnesota Secretary of State website with the school district ed school district election clerk in person or by mail to Cassandra Quam, the RPS district office, 4017th Street West, Richfield, Minnesota 55423. This is where we are right now at 4017th Street West. Filing fee $2 and you must bring or mail cash or check form must be and I think if you withdraw you don't get it back. Oh, make sure it's a $2 you can spend. Form must be filled and activated in it can be changed too. I paid mine partially. The form must be filled in filled in fully and accurately. Do not write in all capital letters. Okay. CA campaign finance reporting. Whenever a campaign has either received or spent $750 or more, the candidate must file a campaign finance report within 14 days. All candidates, no matter how much money is raised or now, is that for people who don't win the election or just if you win the election, do you That's That's all candidates. All candidates noted. Okay. All candidates, no matter how much money is raised or spent, must file a certification of filing within seven days after the election. Once a candidate has filled out fil filed an initial campaign finance report, they must file an annual report every January until they have filed a final report. Finance forms should be filed with the school district election clerk who is again Cassandra Quam. Information and forms can be found at that website. Uh if you don't want to copy it, you can go into the RPS page, the you know Richfield Public School page and look under schoolboard presentation and this this uh presentation is is there as the packet. So you don't have to copy down the website right now. Fundamental roles of school boards. School boards are most effective when they focus on the big picture. Setting vision and goals, monitoring pro progress and holding accountability, making effective policy and ensuring policies are faithfully implemented and engaging stakeholders across and within the community. One thing our school board does, and I think it's probably across the board, is we review all of our policies every five years. So, we're in the process of reviewing a certain number of policies right now and then next year's another set and it goes on. So, every five years we look at our policy and we do make changes. Um, then we as the board have to have to determine and you know, vote on them. School boards delegate the statutory management of the school district to the superintendent. All the work school boards hire, direct and evaluate the performance of the superintendent who handles the day-to-day management of the school district along with the administration. Okay. Powers of school boards as granted by the Minnesota statute. Okay. First, care management and control of school district affairs. The school board is charged with the care management and control of the affairs of the school district. Remembering again our big picture hours. The board must have the general charge of the business of the district, the schoolhouse, and of the interests in the of the schools thereof. Now when we say schoolhouse, it's an all-encompassing schoolhouse. Rules making management responsibilities of the school board. The board must superintend the schools of the district. Superintendants. School districts maintaining a secondary school must employ a superintendent. The superintendent is an exeicio non voting member of the school board. General powers of the school boards. The school board issues bonds with voter approval, levies taxes, hires and discharges employees, contracts for services, purchases facilities and equipment, and lots more. Now, if you have a question that pops into your mind, just raise your hand. I'm sure we can. Some responsibilities of the school board attending required training in governance, school finance and education law issues. Monitoring monitoring student achievement and educational programs. Aligning resources with goals through budgeting. Ensuring facilities are safe and adequate for students and staff. Approving collectively bargained employee contracts. and collaborating with community partners through meaningful engagement and communication. Expectations of the Richfield School Board. We meet two times per month, but only once in July. So, today's our only July meeting. Packet emailed Friday for Monday meetings. Review ahead of time. Questions can be sent in advance so the answers are ready for the meeting. study sessions a few times per year as needed. And this study session forum members have specific roles as voted by the board each January. We have the chair, the vice chair, who is not here today, the clerk, and the treasurer, myself. Each board member has four to six additional liaison assignments that may have other meetings. a school district advisory committee, community committees, partner districts, etc. And then board members are not expected to attend every meeting of their liaison groups, but to generally stay informed and give the board relevant updates. I'm a member of at this point four I have four collateral duties right now and I try to go to all my meetings. It's just it's it's interesting. I'm I work with FA uh Wood Lake, which is a hoot. I'm on the human rights commission, and then I'm on two academic uh um committees within the within the the district as well. Participate participate in issues and community work as needed. Term of office. The board has approved a resolution to transition to even year school board elections. The board members elected in the years 2025, this one, and 2027 will serve three-year terms, which will push them over to the even years. Elections after 2027 will be held in even years. Beginning with the election of 2028, board member terms will revert to four years. Just remember this is a fouryear gig normally but it'll be three years get on the board. Know the law school board meetings are subject are subject to the open meeting law. That means a quorum four or more board members in our case may not meet or discuss any form of school district business without it being considered an open meeting subject to this law. Best practice is to provide transparency by not discussing school district business even with a smaller group of board members without public knowledge. Typically, our board does not meet in groups larger than two or send emails or texts to the full group regardless of the topic. Data privacy laws. Schoolboard members need to maintain the privacy or confidentiality of certain types of data. Um, if one of us gets an email from from a concerned parent, for example, uh, and we want to forward it to everyone, hit reply all and just start having a conversation. That's that's kind of a four example. Or if Steve sends something, just a FYI, this this is something that happened. you know, it's just more of a just just read this and if you want to talk to me individually, yeah, communicating about it because of that. Okay. Schoolboard member code of ethics policy 202 schoolboard member code of ethics. And again, you can look up on the on the on the website what the policy is, but all policies that specifically pertain to the roles and responsibility of the school board are in section 200 of Richfield's policy manual available on our website and it actually tells you that in schools Minnesota School Boards Association MSBA The professional organization for Minnesota's publicly elected school boards. Nonprofit voluntary organization founded in 1920 offers a variety of services for school board and school districts, legislative policy services, board development, and superintendent search. A primary provider of professional development for school boards. You'll go to training at MSBA when you when you get on the board in your first year. We'll send you to to training and then after that going to training is there's there's a Zoom training. There's the con the annual conference and if you become a an officer of the board, you'll go to the training that helps you get get up to speed on that as well. It's interesting. It's interesting be to be able to talk to people from other districts and see how they run things and you'll find we're a pretty good district. Something like that. So MSBA has been around for quite a long time. 1920 100 years. Yeah. I would just like to point out that my people were not even citizens, not made citizens until 1924. For just a little perspective, that's bananas when you think about it. No, but we could serve in wars for this country. Yeah. And you did. Yeah. But we were not citizens. What can you do to be ready to join your school board? Meet with the superintendent and school board chair to learn about the expectations of school board members in your school district. And you can meet with any of the other school board members, too. Start attending board meetings if you haven't already done so. Read agendas and minutes on the website and review videos on YouTube. I started going to to board meetings probably right after I went to this probably even before I came to um talk that we're having right now for other reasons but I live right across the street it's not that okay for more information visit the RPS website at www.ritfieldschools.orgabout or slashabout slash for school board. Um it'll give you different um because I wear glasses. I'm blind. Uh public comments, schoolboard basics, etc., etc. Um, it's all very good information and help you get an idea of who we are, what we do, and um, you know, I suggest that you do come to the board meetings before you go to the to the polls because you can kind of see how things work around here and you can get some ideas on how you would um, fit in, change things, um, what kind kind of questions you have because you can get the packet. The packet is published um on the website and if you go right now to the website you can see packet as well. Um one thing and then that's it. One thing one thing we do which is really kind of I don't know if your district does this but when we have when we're reviewing policies that directly affect students like cell phone policies, like behavior, like dress code. We involve the students in we meet with four groups um as we're trying to rewrite the policy and that would be a parent group because parents are interested. We do both high schools. We do the regular high school here and we also do our alternative high school, the Richfield College Experience Program, which is where my child went. And we do the middle school and it's a great uh way to get the inside scoop on what the kids are thinking and then they they get ownership. And it's really fun to go to these it's one of my favorite subcommittees. is one of my favorite collateral duties. Um because it's really fun to see how these kids do, but that's unique and it gives them ownership and um do they follow the rules completely? Well, they're students, but also they they see things that we don't see. Oh, yeah. Correct. And it teaches them incredible leadership skills. Yeah. Yeah. We usually It's so fun. I was on it this last time. And we have two student we have two student uh three yeah we have three three student uh um members of the board. They're non- voting members but they have are they're not shy at least had in the past and again they give us some really good insight as to how they're thinking on the high school level. They're high school kids and how they're thinking on the high school but we know some middle schoolers that are probably Good. I had a middle schooler at Safe and Supportive Schools ask if they could be on the board via Oliver. I think it was I saw him at the NATO. Oh, no. Not No, it wasn't Oliver. It was this other young man. All right. Questions for the board. This is where people who might be running can actually answer. All that make you more excited or less excited? I'm going to repeat that on the microphone. Otherwise, for future Yes, if you want to jump up, you can make that green and you would be famous. And on what are the reasons you ran for board and what are some of the things that you enjoy or are challenging about being on the board? Board members have 35 minutes. Here I go. Just kidding. I practiced social work for almost 20 years. And so advocacy for um I would say marginalized um groups has always been you know the area where I have focused. And with this district being um 70, you know, plus percent students of color, um I wanted to make sure that we were hearing everyone's voices. and an indigenous woman and having a child in this district had a child in this district. Um I wanted to make sure that the native students voices were being heard because so often we are still quite invisible. Um and it was really awesome to see um program here really expand exponentially. um through the coordinator. Um there was a change in that position um in the time that I have been here. Um this is my fourth year and I will not be running again. Um so I have um really kind of been focused on you know making sure that um those those quiet voices are are brought forward. So um and it's been challenging. It's very challenging. um um not specific to the native community, but I would say probably um more kids that wouldn't necessarily know how to advocate for themselves. Um and so wanting to make sure that um there is more equity in terms of that you know all all youth are um being treated the same. So regardless of you know come from and and whatnot. So yeah. Yeah. So, um I've been very happy with um the, you know, relationships that I've built and uh the work that I've done and um I will have cherished my my four years here. Um so, I I got to a point because I had been asked to run several times and I just was like, "No, no, no." And then I got to a point where I was like, I have no reason not to at this point. So, so I did it and I'm glad that I did. I'm a better person for it. I'm not easy to deal with at all times, but um I have learned a lot, a tremendous amount, and I'm I'm grateful. Oh, me? Okay. Thanks, Eric. Um, so I first ran 12 years ago. Yeah, 12 years ago. So the district was I I felt at the time in a very different place in terms of recognizing who we were and there was macrolevel failing failure I think to realize who we were our students were and who we should be focused on we should focus on all of our students and I felt like that was at the time wasn't necessarily the case also there were some other decisions being made you know while the district at the time was in not in strong financial position and even with that there were some odd decisions being made and the superintendent district had announced that he was retiring and so the next board was going to select the next superintendent. Folks who were on the board were saying well you know we've always been a good community and we've always been great before and we'll just keep doing what we're doing and get better which is never the recipe for getting better. um my a couple of friends were running and I joined them and the three of us happened to get on and so that was that was a a great experience. My you know the it has it's been great for 12 years 11 and a half I still have six months and um no it there have been some some really great highlights and and great people to work with. So that's that's been awesome. Uh there have been you know the the hardest parts and are just you know like being on the board you realize doesn't make you immune or your family immune from challenges as if if you happen to have students in the district. you you you know your students in the district are just like any of our students in the district and they have days or moments or experiences that are you know not great and and so it it's a delicate balance to figure out how to advocate advocate appropriately and you know in the role as a parent or within the role of a board member and you know they're just sort of multiple trains of thought and so that's that's probably been one one of the biggest challenges. Um, the rest of it is just, you know, I don't know. I like to learn things. I like to I like to, you know, I learn I know a lot of things about stuff I'd never really considered before. And so that that's been great. Unless you want to go and this is weird. So I got to qualify this for us are three of us are c potential candidates, right? So, uh, and I may be running. So, um, that said, I my hope for Ritual just in general is that we get the best candidates possible, right? Whether or not it's me or someone else, I want the best people for it. Um, for me joining the board, I'm my background is a little bit different. Um, I don't think I'm as deep in worship. Um, not as smart as some of these other people. Um, I I'm a I'm gonna say I'm a Bloomington Kennedy alum. So for me coming up and like I had certain perceptions of Richfield kind of growing up and like what we thought about the school a long time ago um and kind of watching the schools. I wasn't sure if this is where I wanted my children to go. And so you know I remember um our children went to STEM and um we walked them or I walked them into class every morning for the first couple years and like I was like you know my philosophy of this was is that if I'm not part of the solution I'm part of the problem. And so I'm like, I'm gonna I'm gonna make this school what I want it to be. And so I I built relationships with the parents. I built relationships with faculty. Um and then as I continued on, um like we were involved heavily in youth athletics. Um and then I had an encounter with um and he recommended that um if I had opinions on um certain activities or committees or the the way how the school is being run, I should get involved. Uh, and so, um, I think he was surprised when I saw him the next month, um, at the, uh, my first committee meeting. Um, and then attended. I think I've been on that committee now for eight years. Been a long time. Um, but then as kind of time went on, then um, Steve recommended that I run for the board and we talked about it like what it meant. And my wife is very involved in the community as well. And it's like one of the things I keep thinking about and he really stuck with me. The comment he made was is not everybody's got an Eric Melissa. Um and I said just because it's like you know um volunteer to be involved. I mean a single parent or worked multiple jobs. It's just it's hard to to be involved on the board. Uh and so with that in mind, I'm like I wanted to make sure people were represented and that we were um I mean it's I think Tim's comment I'll say a little more bluntly. It's, you know, people say that board members get special treatment and I have to laugh. Um, because our kids I feel like our kids tend to tend to find out the hard way that that's not the case. Um, and so when we when I look at it and it comes from the lens of what challenges did my family have and then what would a single parent or parent parents working multiple jobs, how would they deal with the issues that we're dealing with? And I'm like, how do I make it easier? um and how do like from a board perspective, from a parent and community member perspective um and that's why I continue to stay involved um and so I will say um the one thing um fine I would say officially you know it's like there there are it is rewarding to see people kind of just be happy with us and like there there people both sides right they're happy with the work we do and they're disappointed in the work we do um for me one of the things having been involved all along with my children and other families in the community graduation, right? Since it's just fresh in the top of my mind, you know, it's um put this plug in. Um my son was asked, my youngest was asked, "What was your favorite picture of your brother?" Uh and when you said that one, and it was me handing my son his diploma. And so, right, that's heartwarming, too. It's like those are the things that we just the connection we have with the faculty, with the students, and being part of that like special moment just huge. Okay, my turn. Um, it's because I wanted to. No. Um, my educational and and um professional experience has been a lot different than many of the people here in Richmond. I grew up overseas, so my whole academic career was in countries outside the United States, mostly in K12 schools. So I got a different view of how education works. I mean when I was in 11th grade I got to TA for but so I did that and um I also had one kid one one of my children the one who went to ARP had a really tough postsec of secondary academic career and REP saved him academically. You know, I'd say they saved his life academically and I was very impressed with how they how that program was working and how um how they are a draw for outside the district. Uh we just that is another thing on the board is what's going to happen is you're going to rep you're going to be the liaison to one of the schools. Okay. I'm the liaison to ars because that's the only school that I was involved with as a parent with a child in um in then as a um as a substitute teacher around the different districts, you get to see how things run. And you know, some districts are run better than others. Some districts do things a lot differently. And um I was a building sub over in St. Paul and I was a building sub here in and I just thought that with my experience I'm also a Navy veteran. I'm also a retired that gives me another look at how other bureaucracies uh run relatively successfully. And I thought that with my all my different experiences might be interesting to come into a school board with the perspectives of international education and the perspective of having a child who quit school in 8th grade. He quit and then he we were able to get him back and RP RP was his was his answer. And then being a sub I see how other schools are see how other schools are run. I other district to run. Thought it would be I thought I could give something back to the to the district. That's awkward. I didn't run. I got hired. Um Tim was actually on the board at that time. So, we'll hold that against him. Those those were the the first six weeks on the board. We were the hiring process. We were involved in this kickoff in December after the election before we had officially started and the interviews started almost right away. Yeah. And I was excited to come to Richfield and I have started my 12th year. I have been here um ever since and so uh it's a great place. It's a great the board what I have seen of them over the years have figured out a way as six um Richfield residents with very different perspectives, very different um life experiences um and different priorities and values coming together um as one unified group to help lead our students and our community into So as you look at the role of a prospective or possible board member Um there are many reasons why people may run. There are different levels of committees. There are different levels of reasoning or things that people get involved in. And um it's an opportunity to be part of a team and a team that works together for our kids. What excites me about um any prospective board members. We also have cheers and like matching outfits and stuff. So I mean it's so cool. I mean really of dreams. Yeah. Super please. So, our dozens of viewers can push that little button so the light turns green. Now you're on camera. Some of you have been on the board longer than others, but does anybody want to share a particularly exciting or interesting, however you want to define that project um or policy um that you got to work on during your time in the board? So, we can get an idea of like what some of the the things that we might get the chance to dig in. One of the things that I really liked doing this year, um, they did a that called the job Olympics for the work experience advisory committee. Thank you. There's oftentimes lots of different activities throughout the year that you get to be involved in. Graduation is always one of my favorite things, but the job Olympics this year was incredible because juniors and seniors got to show up. They could bring a resume and have somebody review it. They could actually get head shot taken. They got to practice their interviewing skills. Like things that I mean, some adults don't even have access to. I mean, and getting them, you know, at that age those things practiced and, you know, it just it was really cool. It was so fun. And I got to host um a game show. So, I mean, that part was really fun for me, but Yeah, I mean there's there's all kinds of things that, you know, we get to we get to do um whether here or like out of the district. Um but that was probably my favorite thing this year. Uh so I you talked about interesting u think of my time here you know if I think about one of um Ken's comments about kind of going to board meetings right now before you're elected. Um, that was one of the first ones where I thought, you know, it's like it was pre I had just been elected. It was pre-COVID or not pre-COVID, it was during CO or post kind of post and I remember hearing about like 21 is and um hearing about um a mask being removed from a faculty member's face and then um someone getting like arrested and it was just I was like, "Oh my god, what did I sign up for?" Uh, and I come to the board meeting and then they were talking about um, health education and people had come in from outside like across the nation to come speak to your small ridgefield. Um, which I thought was really interesting. Um, I look at this I mean for me being on the school board is is not a political thing. It's not a political platform. It is it is about making sure the school run taking care of our kids. Um, so I thought it was interesting that people are trying to use it and and I've seen people place and for me that's just that that is of interest and it's like how do we make sure that we just get the work done. Um I will say the other thing is is it is how things are done behind the scenes and there are times where Steve reminds us that we can't talk about certain things. Um and it's just because we're a business and I think people forget that and it's like and it sucks to say it that way. Uh but it's like you know you don't want to say that our kids are the widgets but it's like we have employees and the employees um can get frustrated about their work situation and they can speak about it but we as a board can't. And so you know parents are like why are you doing this and it's like come on right it's like one of the things that really hurts me or makes me angry and a combination of both is when people are like you care about the kids and I'm like if I didn't care about the kids I wouldn't be here. I'm like my kids are here. like my kids are friends with your kids and it's like we're all a big family. Like that's that that hurts to the core and it's like so um those are the kind of interesting things for me. I've kind of already mentioned one of the things that I really like and it's how we get the the students at least the secondary students involved with policym and um you know it was very hard but I gave up half of my uh my safe my support safe and supportive schools job to Rachel. Um but didn't I give you the Yes, you did. You gave me the human rights council. Okay then. commission rather which was also good too. Um, but it's just it's a very fun uh uh committee to be on because it's really again it's it's interesting and you know you talk about trying to get away from the politics and stuff but it's our job to make sure that the students are served that the students are students are served politics notwithstanding if possible that's I'll go with that that was another the reason I joined the the the board. Um, one thing that happened to me about two weeks ago, was it two weeks? I live right where they staged the um I think it was fourth of July. It was fourth of July, wasn't it? That was what 10 days ago. 10 days ago. I live right where they staged the parade. So, I decided to walk out and see who was in the parade. And um you get to know the leaders of the city. So, as I was trotting up the road, I get paged by the mayor and she tells me, "There's nobody from the board. There's an empty car." And I like, "But but but so I got to ride in the parade. I was not wearing an RPS shirt. I was actually wearing a was a kind of a I forget what you were wearing, but I was cheering loudly for you from the sidelines." Yes. And And I I thought that was great. And that's part of the adventure, you know, you get surprised and all of a sudden you're, "Hi, school board." Everybody was like, "Yeah." Elbow, elbow, wrist, rest, something like that. But it was what the best part of that was running into my students and other people I knew. And um that's part of the fun. I mean, that's the fun part of this is is that as well. Yeah. I'm not glamour. Don't sell yourself short. Just look at your shirt. Come on, Ken. Oh, I I have just um a lot of really fun experiences in terms of policy. It's difficult to point to things that were uh exciting. There was a number of things that that have started and then it's not just the board doing them, right? Like so you have to understand so many of the the things things that are important typically are offered to us by the administration and so fortunate that we have such a competent and thoughtful administration and to work with them and then to find ways for us to implement it because you know to be fair it's it's not something I I've come up with that that's worked well right like I went to I was I've been at job Olympics for 12 years and it's awesome every single time seeing the kids you know put themselves out there and try. Uh and so and graduation is amazing every single time, right? And then all these other events that we get to go to and and every of the events we get to go to, the public gets to go to them, too. But for some reason, we we just we're identifiable and um you get to have more than average interactions and it's really really been gratifying in that way. just the the very positive interactions we've been able to have with with so many people and and the connections you have with so many of the students um who really are the whole reason, right? Like the whole reason you're here probably is to help young people become next year's, you know, the future leaders and and the people who are ideally going to take care of me willfully uh at some point. And I hope they they do so thinking well of me. That that part's been great. Ultimately, we get to be Steve's boss is on that. I I will say um way wait going way back some information that was in the slide deck. We we said Ken mentioned it's in the slides like oh read our agendas and and minutes. The minutes are a very boring reflection of who who moved an item and who voted. To really understand how the meetings go, you have to watch the YouTube videos. Pro tip, watch them on one and a quarter or 1.5. I'm probably the only one of us who speaks fast enough to where 1.5 is a lot. Sound like Alan the Chipmunk. Yeah. Which isn't far from accurate anyway. So, but that that's how you get the best glimpse of it. Time to close it up, Mr. L. Okay. Well, thank you everyone who attended the Sunday session today and who was watching online. If there are any further questions, we will adjourn the study session and have a break before the board meeting at 700 pm. Amat.